


I felt your pain when you were gone

by Elfo98



Series: Soulmates [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Baltimore, I don't know what I'm doing, M/M, POV Andrew Minyard, i fear i made them too ooc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-17 00:39:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11840385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elfo98/pseuds/Elfo98
Summary: Another Soulmate AU where Neil and Andrew can feel each other's pain and how the Foxes find out.Or: my take on the Baltimore incident because I can't seem to get enough of it.





	I felt your pain when you were gone

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm doing. This is my first Andreil ever, so I'm not sure if it's any good.  
> English isn't my first language, so there might be mistakes.

As Andrew stepped out of the building right after Aaron, he thought that maybe he should have guessed that something bad was going to happen. It wasn't just the fact that some cops had offered to escort the Foxes out, but also Neil's words, as if he was saying goodbye.

_Thank you. You were amazing._

Andrew didn't know where that came from, or what it meant. He figured he would just ask the idiot once they got to the bus, but first he had to protect his family from the people that were currently attacking them. He didn't have a deal with Neil anymore (though that didn't mean he didn't still feel an urge to keep him safe)(just because that meant making sure he wouldn't feel the pain either), so he focused on Kevin and Aaron and Nicky, dodging punches and hitting the most immediate threats, both with his fists and knives. He knew Renee would keep an eye on the others, so he at least hoped their striker would take care of himself.

At some point someone must have hit him with their elbow because for a moment his vision blurred, but he quickly responded with a punch in the gut that could easily knock their breath out. He pushed Kevin on the bus, climbing up after him. Most of the other Foxes were already there, scratched and bloody: Matt was breathing heavily in his seat, a hand covered the bruises on his stomach while Dan checked his knuckles; Abby was tending to one of Allison's eyes which Andrew was sure would be black by the next few hours, and just then Renee entered with the Coach. They were all there, except for the most important one.

That's when, in the tranquility of the bus, he finally became aware of the burning pain on his arms. It was like someone was drawing lines on them with a blade, probably a knife; Andrew had felt a similar pain all throughout his life, everywhere on his body, but whenever he took a look there was never blood. That's because he wasn't the one who was being hurt, but his soulmate. He grew up hating them, whoever they were: he already had so much trouble in his life, why did he have to suffer for someone else too? But then he actually met him, Neil, and though at first he thought he was a nuisance and dangerous to the ones he had to protect, he became in such a short time so much more. He was a pipe dream. He was nothing. And then... he wasn't.

And now he was in trouble.

He tried to mask his pain shaking his arms, but he knew he wouldn't be able to conceal it for long. If someone was torturing Neil, he doubted they would stop at mere knives.

“I'm going out,” he moved to the door. He needed to find the idiot, if he was still there. He was stopped by a cop holding a duffel bag and a raquet, probably Neil's. They were covered in dust, and on the orange of the duffel there were a few footprints, but at least the raquet wasn't broken.

“We found them not far from here, on the ground. Thought you might need them,” the man said, giving them to Andrew who almost let them fall. He couldn't feel his arms anymore, there was only pain.

“Have you seen Neil Josten? Auburn hair, blue eyes, a little taller than me.” his voice came out more hoarse than he intended.

The cop shook his head: “I'm sorry. But if we see him we'll let you know. I recommend you not to leave the bus, though.”

Andrew didn't ansnwer. He just left and went to the back of the vehicle instead. There was no point anyway, Neil was probably gone. He would never leave his things like that, especially not the keys he gave him.

_A man can only have so many issues. It's just a key._  
_You're a foster child. You know it isn't._

As he sat he grimaced: the pain had moved to his knuckles and fingers. Someone was having fun teasing, seeing as the blade never went in too deep. Andrew looked inside Neil's phone: there, amongst the various calls from his teammates, there was a number he didn't recognise. The call had happened a few minutes before the riot, a few minutes before the subtle goodbye. He got it now, when Neil said “thank you” he had meant for everything, they keys, the trust, the honesty, the kisses. He'd known he'd hit his deadline and had left with that, and it angered Andrew, because only a few hours before he'd let the idiot have his way.

_Don't come crying to me when someone breaks your face._

And just as he thought that, he felt his face burning. It was unexpected, a kind of pain he'd never experienced before, and he couldn't stop the whimper that came out of his mouth. Usually Andrew wouldn't let anyone see him in a moment of vulnerability: he'd hide in an empty room until the worst of it was over. But this was too much; for the first time in many years he wanted to scream, to beg for it to stop.

He didn't. Instead he gripped the seat in front of him until his knuckles went white, trying to catch his breath. He barely registered Renee when she sat beside him, not touching him but calling his name over and over. But his vision was too blurry.

“Neil,” he said, audible enough for her to hear it.

“We can't find him, Andrew. He's not here.”

_“Neil.”_

Andrew looked at her. She had an arm wrapped around her neck with a t-shirt, but she was looking right back with worry. Understanding crossed her face a moment later and her eyes went so wide he thought they might come out of their orbits.

“Are they doing this to him?” she asked carefully. He nodded, not trusting his voice.

“Who is doing what to who?” everyone was watching him now. They were probably wondering what he was doing there, slumped on his seat. They'd never seen the Monster like that, like he was about to break. Only Kevin was avoiding his eyes, his face as pale as the shirt he was wearing.

“Kevin,” he called, his voice still a whisper but murderous enough to make him flinch. “Where is he?”

He didn't hear his response. The fire had moved to his already burning arms, taking his breath away. He couldn't see anymore, couldn't hear anymore, there was just him, the darkness surrounding him and the flames that were taking his body apart.

 

* * *

 

 

When he woke up he was in an hotel room. The pain was still there but some of it had faded away. The Foxes were there, the upperclassmen on the floor away from Andrew's bed while Nicky and Aaron sat on the one next to his. Kevin was standing beside the door with Wymack and Abby, but he was shaking all over.

Before he himself could understand what was happening, he had crossed the room and had his hands wrapped around Kevin's neck. Matt and the Coach immediatly came to stop him, but he was so mad that they couldn't even make him budge.

“Where is he, Kevin?” he asked again. He didn't know how much time had passed, but he assumed Neil wasn't dead yet since he was still hurting everywhere. “You have two minutes to tell me whatever secret you're keeping from me.”

If he was in his best condition, maybe he would have killed him. As it was, he was still too weak to do anything more than make sure he had bruises the next day. The others finally succeded on breaking them apart, but Kevin still didn't answer, he took his time to catch some breath.

“His father took him.” he said when he was able to form coherent words.

“His father is dead.” Andrew replied coldly. “Truth, Kevin.”

Kevin coughed, shaking his head. “Neil's real name is Nathaniel Wesninski, son of Nathan Wesninski otherwise known as the Butcher of Baltimore and Kengo's right hand. He's the one Neil's been running from all these years.”

Neil had lied to him, then, though he could understand why. He was always a martyr, no one can change in so little time. But it made sense, in the end: if his father was a 'butcher' then all those scars, all that pain had now an explanation.

“If...” Kevin choke on his words. “If _they_ took him, there's no way... he can't... he has to be dead.”

“He's not.” Andrew growled, because Neil was too stubborn to die and Andrew refused to count that as a possibility with his body still burning.

A phone rang. Wymack answered immediatly, remaining silent for a moment before he hung up. Andrew looked at him expectantly.

“It was the FBI. They found him, he's at the hospital in Baltimore.” the Coach told them, and the room was filled with various sighs of relief. “They want to ask us some questions.”

“Can we see him?” Dan asked.

“I'm not sure.”

There was nothing to discuss. After ten minutes they were out of the hotel and on the road to Baltimore to see their teammate. Andrew looked out of the window the whole time, looking for reassurance in the fading ache in his arms. He knew that the doctors had probably given Neil pain killers and that was why he almost couldn't feel it anymore, definitely not because he was dead.

They arrived at another hotel where some feds were waiting for them. They tried to spill the truth from their mouths, but the Foxes where a stubborn bunch, they refused to talk till they could see Neil. Even so, Andrew couldn't stop himself from attacking some obnoxious guy who couldn't keep his mouth shut and ended up being handcuffed to Wymack. Together they went to move the bus elsewhere, and when they came back a new car was parked outside the building. Andrew ran up the stairs, dragging the coach with him, and pushed the annoying fed away so he could see, finally, his idiot.

He barely saw the other man pointing a gun at him, too focused on the way Neil folded his arms on his chest and feeling the pain of it himself. He reached him and pushed him down until they were both on the floor. The touch was a relief: he was there, he wasn't a pipe dream, he was alive alive alive.

“They could have blinded you,” Neil sad, his voice a little hoarse, but there was a faint smile on his bandaged face. “All this time fighting and you never learned how to duck?”

Andrew didn't answer, but he wondered if he had felt it when they'd hit him. He started removing the bandages even if he knew what he would find: on his right cheek there were a few lines made by a knife, while on the left his skin where the tattoo should have been was burned and red.

“Christ, Neil” was the only sign that Wymack was still there.

Someone started to move behind Neil, but the coach stopped them. Andrew returned his gaze on the wrecked boy in front of him.

“I'm sorry,” Neil murmured. Anger flared again within Andrew and he threw back a fist ready to hit, but he didn't. He didn't need to add more pain to what they were already feeling.

“Say it again and I will kill you,” he said instead.

There was another movement beside them. “This is the last time I'm going to say it to you. If you can't stow that attitude and behave...”

“You'll what, asshole?” At least some things never changed.

“The same goes for you, Nathaniel” it was the fed that had pulled out the gun. “That's your second strike. A third misstep and this is over. Remember you are only here because we are allowing it.”

At that Andrew started to get up but Neil stopped him framing his head with his hands. Warmth radiated from them, and he took relief from them too. He'd almost lost it, all of this: Neil's gentleness and understanding, the fact that he never stepped on his boundaries. It was becoming hard now trying to convince himself that this was nothing. There was no turning back.

“Don't lie to a liar,” Neil replied, as collected as he always was. “We both know I'm here because you have nothing without me. A pile of dead bodies can't close cases or play the money trail with you. I told you what those answer would cost you and you agreed to pay it. So take these handcuffs off of Andrew, get your man out of our way, and stop using my twenty minutes with your useless posturing.”

Twenty minutes? That was not long enough.

When he finally felt the handcuff being removed he flexed his fingers a few times before he dropped the hand on his thigh.

“So the attitude problem wasn't an act, at least.”

“I was going to tell you.”

“Stop lying to me.”

“I'm not lying, I would have told you last night but they were in our locker room.”

“They who?” asked the fed, and Neil switched predictably to German.

“Those weren't security guards that came for us. They were there for me and they would have hurt all of you to get me out of there. I thought by keeping my mouth shut I could keep you safe.” A thumb brushed carefully the skin under Andrew's eye. “I didn't know they'd staged a riot.”

“What did I tell you about playing the martyr card?”

“You said no one wanted it, you didn't tell me to stop.”

Andrew scoffed. “It was implied.”

“I'm stupid, remember? I need things spelled out.”

“Shut up.”

“Am I at ninety-four yet?” his voice was so soft and mocking at the same time, as if they where still on the roof and this was one of their usual conversations.

“You're at one hundred. What happened to your face?” he knew of course, but he wanted to make sure. Neil looked like he wanted to throw up right then. “A dashboard lighter.”

Nicky whimpered on the bed and Aaron cursed under his breath. Neil turned to watch the commotion and the others could see the mess on his face. Kevin recoiled so hard he hit the wall with his back, a hand covering the tattoo. Such a self-centered coward.

“Jesus, Neil. What the fuck did they do to you?” Dan had to restrain Matt from standing up. The only one who couldn't keep her distance was Abby, and Andrew wasn't in the mood to see the pity on her face.

“Get away from us,” he said.

“Andrew, he's hurt. Let me see him.”

“If you make me repeat myself you will not live to regret it.”

Neil tugged lightly at his hair a few times before Andrew turned his head to him. Then spoke gently to Abby: “Abby, I just got out of the hospital. I'm as good as I can be right now.”

“Neil,” she insisted.

“Please.”

She took a step back. They were looking at each other again.

“Did they tell you who I am?” Neil asked now that they could go on with their conversation.

“They didn't have to. I choked the answers out of Kevin. Guess you weren't an orphan after all.” He didn't mean to say it like that, but he was still annoyed that Neil had lied to him about that. “Where's your father now?”

“My uncle executed him,” if Neil's face was pale before, he looked almost trasparent now. He pressed two fingers on Andrew's chest over his heart. The touch would have made him recoil in a normal situation, but he understood that it was Neil's way to take comfort. “I spent all my life wishing he would die, but I thought he never would. I thought he was invincible. I can't believe it was that easy.”

“Was it easy?” Andrew replied. “Kevin told us who he worked for.”

He didn't need to say the name, especially not in front of the FBI. They couldn't understand the language but 'Moriyama' was a common word. Neil gulped.

“My uncle said he was going to them and try to negotiate a ceasefire. I don't know if he's strong enough to bargain with them, but I'd like to think he wouldn't have risked it without a real ground to stand on. Promise me no one's told the FBI about them.”

“No one said a word to them since they said we couldn't see you.”

Honestly, this boy was so oblivious. He still thought they would betray him at the first sign of problem, after all they'd been through. “But why? I've done nothing but lie to them. I willingly put them all in danger so I could play a little longer. They got hurt last night because of me, why would they protect me now?”

“You're a fox,” there was no doubt in his voice. It was that simple. It was a truth, like sunrise, Abram and death.

“Andrew, they want to take me away from here. They want to enroll me in the Witness Protection Program so my father's people can't find me. I don't want...” he stopped, taking a breath. “If you tell me to leave, I'll go.”

There was a time where Andrew wouldn't have even thought about it. He never wanted a soulmate, especially if he was bad news to everyone sorrounding him. When he and Andrew had made that deal months before, Andrew was waiting for the day where he'd see the boy crumble and run like the rabbit he was. Now, though, even if he didn't want to admit it, he was in too deep. He switched to english, because he trusted the Foxes to get the job done. “You'aren't going anywhere. You're staying with us. If they try to take you away, they will lose.”

Thankfully they got the message.

The feds were really confused at their evident death wish. “Coach Wymack, talk some sense into your team.”

“Neil, talk to me.” the coach said then, a fighter look on his face. “What do you want?”

Neil cleared his throat, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. Andrew felt his own fingers sting at the movement. “I want... I know I shouldn't stay, but I can't... I don't want to lose this. I don't want to lose any of you. I don't want to be Nathaniel anymore. I want to be Neil for as long as I can.”

When the feds still couldn't shut up, Andrew tugged at Neil's hoodie, gritting his teeth. “Get rid of them before I kill them.”

“They're waiting for answers,” Neil said. “They were never able to charge my father while he was alive. They're hoping I know enough to start decimating his circle in his absence. I'm going to give them the truth, or as much of it as I can without telling them my father was acting on someone's orders. Do you want to be there for it? It's the story I should have given you months ago.”

"I have to go," Andrew said. "I don't trust them to give you back." They stood. Neil talked some more with Wymack while the others tried to reassure him, but Andrew tuned it all out. It was almost over.

“Thank you.”

“No, thank _you_ ,"Allison replied, with a malicious grin. “You just closed three outstanding bets and made me five hundred dollars. I'd rather find out exactly when you two hooked up and how you are soulmates than think about this awfulness any longer. So let's talk about that on the ride back.”

Andrew felt his twin's gaze on him at that, searching confirmation, but neither he nor Neil said anything. There was no point in denying that now that everyone had seen it.

“Ready?” Neil asked him instead.

“Waiting on you.”

“I didn't invite him,” the fed said and Wymack snorted: “Trust me, you'll fare a lot better if you take them both.”

And just like that they were out of there, on a FBI SUV on their way to the police station. Neil looked at him like he wanted to discuss what happened but that wasn't the place nor the time. “Can I really be Neil again?”

_Stop looking at me like that. I'm not your answer, and you sure as fuck aren't mine._

He was starting to think he'd been lying to himself all this time.

“I told Neil to stay,” he said. “Leave Nathaniel buried in Baltimore with his father.”

He didn't say to bury the past with them too. All that pain they both suffered during their lives, it didn't matter anymore. Neil knew he meant it anyway.

“Neil Abram Josten...” he whispered, and even if he was the one tracing the shape of the Columbia key on his palm, he wasn't the only one who felt like he was at home.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I guess that's it. How did I do?
> 
> Let's be friends! I'm Elfo98 on Tumblr.


End file.
